1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image coding method, an image coding apparatus, an image coding circuit, an information recording medium, and a computer program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Up until now, techniques of controlling the code amount of code data to be generated have been known in image coding methods in which image data are compressed to generate the code data.
For example, JP-A-2006-33868 (Patent Document 1) discloses the invention of an image processing apparatus that controls the code amount by converting image data into frequency components and eliminating entropy-coded data corresponding to the frequency components in a predetermined range from the entropy-coded image code data. Moreover, Patent Document 1 discloses an image processing method in which the range of the frequency components to be eliminated is changed to output code data having a different code amount.
Furthermore, for example, JP-A-2004-350162 (Patent Document 2) discloses the invention of an image coding apparatus that includes plural sets of quantization units and subsequent units that control the code amount to output plural coded data sets each having a different code amount from one image.
Note that the “coded data” in Patent Documents 1 and 2 correspond to the “code data” of the embodiments of the present invention.    Patent Document 1: JP-A-2006-33868    Patent Document 2: JP-A-2004-350162